Kitchen Before & After: Debra's Bibliothèque Paris Kitchen Renovation

When Kitchn reader Debra bought her apartment in the Marais district of Paris in 2007, the kitchen had not been renovated since the 1950's. Needless to say, it needed a lot work! But because it was small and opened into the living room, she also wanted it to feel integrated with the rest of the house, to have a bit of a bibliothèque feel. Here's what she did:

Dark wood, a black backsplash, and dark grey/green floors help create a cozy feel that blends with the old-world feel of the apartment. Debra tells us a little more about the project:

As the apartment is small, it was a real challenge to make every space count. I therefore decided to make the kitchen open, knocking down all walls and having it intergrated with my living room. It then had to have a feeling of a bibliothèque rather than a full-blown kitchen. The end result had to work with the living area and also be a real working kitchen.

I love spending time in the kitchen preparing great things that make people happy and full! It isn't so important how big your kitchen is but how organized, so that you can actually prepare and cook with as little stress as possible and have fun! An open kitchen like this one allows you to share the social aspect of cooking with your guests, thus my attraction to this type of set up. I have a similar one in my fisherman's cottage in Normandy so people can actually chip in and help or hang out by the fireplace and relax.